Objective: To investigate the abnormalities of the relative factors of pRb-p16 cell regulatory pathway in pancreatic adenocarcinoma.
Methods: Five strains of human pancreatic adenocarcinoma cell lines were analysed by PCR and single-strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) for homozygous deletion and mutation of the p16 gene, respectively. The gene amplification of cyclin D1 was detected by Southern blot analysis and the protein expression of pRb gene was examined by Western blot analysis.
Results: Homozygous deletion of exon 1 were found in two cell lines and no mutation was found within exon 1 and exon 2 in five cell lines. Cyclin D1 gene amplification was observed in one cell line and all of the five cell lines showed hyper-phosphorylated pRb protein.
Conclusion: These findings have demonstrated that there are abnormalities of pRb-p16 regulatory pathway in pancreatic adenocarcinoma cell lines, revealing the alteration of the p16 and cyclin D1 genes.